The fears people had about the legalization of cannabis in Canada seem quaint today.

Before Oct. 17, 2018, there were naysayers who felt the seismic shift in drug policy would be the end of normalcy as we had known it for decades. Taber Mayor Andrew Prokop said it was dangerous for young people and had no value for anyone unless they were medically required to use it. Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer voted against the policy change before coming out in favour of it in June. It is a given some people would think and act this way due to the old status quo, but the new reality is nothing to fear.

A Statistics Canada survey released in August found little over one-fifth of males 15 and older used cannabis in the first half of 2019 alongside 12 per cent of Canadian females. Further data from May found 18 per cent of Canadians aged 15 and older overall had used in the last three months. This was only a four per cent increase from the year before legalization. In addition, Calgary police said in July the change had little impact on crime or disorder and a spokesman said many of the users were “being responsible with it.”

People know what they are doing and can handle this product being legal. The world has not ended. On the heels of this successful experiment, it is high time this country explored the decriminalization of other narcotics like cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and ecstasy for those struggling with addictions to them.

I recognize this may not always work. To be fair, the same police department that said users were responsible with cannabis also noted a supervised consumption site in the city saw a rise in crime in 2018.

However, officials in Edmonton said in July crime has remained stable in areas where these services exist in the capital and that calls for service are on the rise in part due to population growth and improved trust.

There is also the matter of Portugal to consider.

The European nation became the first to decriminalize all illicit substances in 2001. The country previously required residents to get a license to own a cigarette lighter and had struggled with an epidemic of heroin use in the 1980’s. Since they came to their senses and treated addiction like the public health crisis it is, HIV has fallen from 104.2 cases per million in 2000 to 4.2 million cases per million in 2015 and they had 30 drug deaths in 2016 compared to more than 3000 in Canada that same year. Dealing is also still illegal.

Addicted people need help and not a pair of handcuffs. If you have to force them into treatment, so be it, but do not put the soccer mom struggling with opiates or the businessman with a bit of personal cocaine in prison. Punishing people for these diseases in such a way only connects them to harder criminals and is grossly unfair when decades of tolerance and aid for those with alcoholism is taken into consideration.

After all, when is the last time you saw a drunk get a long prison sentence just for an open bottle?